Link to orginal Teamstudio press release

This evening, eProductivity Principal Architect Ian Armstrong and I were presented with a plaque for our honorable mention at the Teamstudio Spotlight Awards reception at Lotusphere 2009.

Teamstudio CTO Nigel Cheshire with ICA President Eric Mack and eProductivity Principal Architect, Ian Armstrong at the Teamstudio Awards Reception

The honorable mention was for "the remarkable application: eProductivity." I am delighted and we would like to thank Ian for his hard work and the folks at Teamstudio for this recognition.

Teamstudio Spotlight Award honorable mention for the remarkable application: eProductivity

As part of this recognition, the folks at DominoPower will be writing an article about the product. Until then, you can learn more, here.
It feels good to mark off a large project like this as "completed." It's been an exhilarating 12 days in Manila, speaking to over 4,000+ attendees of the Beyond Planning: eProductivity Conference. In the course of the six day conference, I delivered over 30 sessions and even added an impromptu session on my day off. The 24 hour trip (door-to-door) home was made ever more challenging by spending it seated next to a 2 1/2 year OLD boy that screamed about his bottle all the way from the airport, onto the plane, and through U.S. Customs and baggage claim. I was delighted to help the frazzled mother with her bags and on her way. I don't know how she did it.

I enjoyed my stay in Manila; the people were most gracious and caring. On the last day, I even got a private tour of the countryside, including a trip to see the volcano. That was fun. The country and people of the Philippines are wonderful. At the same time, I'm glad to be heading home to see my family, which is why this sign was so welcoming to me...

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The conference has required a lot of my attention for the past 8 weeks, time away from family, school, clients and friends. With the conference now behind me, I'm planning to unhook for a few days of R&R, then, when I've had an opportunity to review my notes and the photos from the media crew, I will blog about the conference.

But first, just a few words of thanks:


Continue Reading ""Deliver eProductivity Conference" marked completed" »

Musings on jet lag, conf prep, and favorite hymns

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
I crashed hard last night at about 7:30 PM local time. Now, it's 3:43 AM local time and I'm wide awake. I'd rather be on this side of jet lag. Anyway, I enjoyed a nice quiet time, reading my Bible and listening to my favorite hymns and worship songs in my hotel room. I'm normally a late night person, and while getting up early for a quiet time has long been a desire of mine, it does not happen as often as I would like. So, I'm thankful for opportunities like these when I actually get up before the clock sounds.

Focusing on the outcome
This conference has required so much work and preparation that's easy to forget the purpose of the conference itself and focus on mechanics and delivery. The purpose of this conference is about helping people. I desire to be a part of that process, by sharing some of what I have learned in the past 25 years in business with the hope that others will find some of it useful and learn from it, too. I'm really excited about the vision that Pastor Sumrall has for these conferences that he does each year to help the people of Manila and I'm honored to be invited to be this year's featured speaker. It's an awesome responsibility and opportunity.

Continue Reading "Musings on jet lag, conf prep, and favorite hymns" »
One of the things that surprised me about coming to Manila this week was the professionalism and attention to detail exhibited by the people preparing for this conference. I was surprised to walk down the hall and see an office -- with my name on it -- being set up for the conference.

2007 COP Manila eProductivity Conference Planning Staff

The office was not for me, but for people assigned to work on planning, marketing, promoting, and preparing for the conference. in addition to the various committees, there are six people (that I know of) responsible for promotion, registration, event planning, and the print and web-site materials.
I've been doing my best to learn everyone's name and now I have several new ones to learn. I will get someone to match the names I wrote down with all of the faces in the photos I am posting to the blog so that when I return next month I can greet everyone by name.

I'm appreciative to have the support from this staff and I look forward to helping them serve the people of Manila.
After several iterations and meetings it looks like we've agreed upon the name and theme of the eProductivity conference:

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Beyond Planning: eProductivity

Using Information, Communication, and Action tools to get things done.

We want to convey the idea that we will cover topics beyond simply planning, yet we will focus on the tools and methodology of working smart.

Continue Reading "Conference title: Beyond Planning: eProductivity" »
When Pastor Sumrall first contacted me to discuss coming to Manila to deliver an eProductivity conference, I was surprised. (I actually put him off, but that's a separate story to share.) I'd never heard of a church organizing a productivity conference on such a large scale (actually, on any scale), let alone, bring in a speaker from another country.

Pastor David Sumrall of the Cathredal of Praise, Manila, Philippines

Pastor Sumrall explained that this conference was being organized by the Kasaganaan business fellowship and the School of Christian Entrepreneurial Studies (SCES). This business group and school focus on equipping Christians in the Philippines to do "business by the Book" and to help members who are so inclined to find new opportunities by becoming entrepreneurs, better employees, managers, and business owners.

I was intrigued, so I asked why they do this. I even asked if this was a way to get people into church for group evangelism. Would there be an altar call, I wondered?

Pastor Sumrall replied...
Continue Reading "Why would a church host a productivity conference?" »

A Barong Tagalog for Eric Mack

Saturday, October 6th, 2007
I came to Manila with slacks, a few eProductivity polo shirts, and a shirt, tie, and jacket for my television interview. These are not common attire here. It's far too hot and humid to spend much time outside in a suit or jacket. So, on Friday night, Pastor Marlan drove me into town to Tesoro's to be fitted for a Barong Tagalog.  This evening, they presented me with a blue and brown Barong, which I will wear proudly for the remainder of my stay here.

Eric Mack with Pastor David Sumrall

I'm told that the Barong is considered formal attire for Filipino men - similar to wearing a coat or a dress shirt. It's lightweight, very comfortable, and covers my temple well (LINK)
Shared sessions allow two (or more) people to share a screen and collaborate on a document in real time. The latest version of Microsoft OneNote provides this capability from a simple menu option.

I recently asked my two resident junior technologists - Amy and Wendy Mack- to explore the shared session capability of Microsoft OneNote so that they might show their robotics team how to use OneNote to work together, apart. Amy and Wendy did this - they used OneNote and Skype to collaborate on a document from different rooms of the house,

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I have invited Michael Sampson, of Shared Spaces Research and Consulting, to join me as Amy and Wendy teach us about how they use OneNoteShared Sessions. During this unedited podcast, Amy and Wendy even walk us through a live 4-way shared session. (It works!)

Highlights:

Brief overview of OneNote features
How to launch a shared session (A live 4-way session)
OneNote in School
Audio recording and playback (You can record video, too)
Amy's tour of OneNote as a clipboard for research
Wendy describes OneNote templates and planners
OneNote in School as a tool for note taking (Amy)
Note Flags in OneNote (Wendy)
Wendy hints that she really needs a Tablet PC
OneNote for Mind Mapping - Wendy says MindManager is better suited
Amy & Wendy share about their experience the FIRST Robotics Competition
Using OneNote and MindManager as collaborative tools for a robotics team

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In this, their first podcast, Amy and Wendy, eProductivity specialists in their own right, teach us about their experience using OneNote Shared Sessions.


Amy & Wendy on OneNote Shared Sessions

Eric Mack On-line - June 16, (20 min 30 sec) MP3 9.3 MB


Update:
Amy & Wendy asked me to clarify that they did not actually get in trouble for using OneNote shared sessions during school. I promised them I would.

Amy and Wendy on OneNote Shared Sessions